Anatolia
[Home] [Regions] Continents and Major Cities Anatol The Anatolian Badlands are governed by politicking tribal families , their reign enforced by militias of irregulars and barter trade. Mostly useless and otherwise misunderstood carcasses of forgotten spacecraft, industrial centers and military bases are strewn across the barren Badlands of the south. Haggard peasants sell extracted components which seem to be of value to expat corporations and merchants. Advanced robotics, while not unknown, are rarely understood. Instead, the populace collects valuable-looking artifacts called Totems, which are believed to harbored imprisoned spirits. Only the wandering shamen have the mental fortitude for spiritual warfare. They trade instructions for the devices to serfs, trading these spells, captured with Northern ink and papyrus, for Oblivion cigars and revolver shells. Desanna: capitol of the Haarloi Mountain range, separating the Badlands and the Northern marsh territory, and haloed with Entrenchment Rings. Khalsa-Kazi:'''Two rival cities whose beginnings and ends are no longer definite. Situated on either side of an immense chasm created uniquely deep Entrenchment Rings, the cities have spent 164 years spreading bridge-highways between them to bolster trade and uphold the Persian Accord. Khalsa, a center of mountain trade, hunting, navigation and techno-mystic enclaves funded by Samarkand, recently began decimating many of the most ancient bridges, severing ties both symbolically and literally with Kazi, a coastal experiment in rapid industrialization backed by Shemyaza from Sheol MIC. '''Narül Naruul: Built over a crater, the remnant of a long-forgotten war or passing meteor, the city's flourishing into a manufacturing and mechanical center only makes it current resurgence of tribal militias and drug trade, and crippling poverty that much more unfortunate. Like many temple-and-market waystations where Badlands nomads frequently congregate, Naruul rest on an intersection of ley-lines. Many of those nomads stay, and begin simple, agricultural lives made possible by the Streghor Coven's efforts to rekindle the soil in the crater beneath the city. Now, the Coven asserts dominance over the political autonomy of the citizens, which the local Sultans find to be an overstepping of bounds. Samarkand Ceridian (capitol of Samarkand): enormous, interworld hub of trade, technology, and information. Ethnic and culturally diverse, connected to the Jharka Space Elevator and the orbital Kozma Satellite. Charwynd: paradisiacal tourist trap Landscape, Flora, and Fauna Dominated in the south by immense stretches of craggy desert scrub known as the Badland, and the reputably haunted northern marsh territories, Anatol's reputation for achingly beautiful landscapes and people is matched only by that of its strange, shapeshifting animal life, and the fire of its native pride. Sprawling from the enormous Lantern Mesa of Watchtower Ridge, the mining town Kolaraign is the chief exporter of the drug Oblivion and many virulent forms of poison, concocted by the town's infamous apothecaries from the bulbous flowers growing abundantly in the mesa's shadow. Considered an oasis of the Anatolian Badlands, Kolaraign is also the closest town to Lone Sentinel Shrine, devoted to a forgotten god of redemption. Legends say the monks there possess the last remaining strain of an ancient Xian experimental plant whose petals have the ability to eradicate dependencies in an addict. But the petals are fragile, and do not survive any climate but the paradisaical garden tended by the monks. To this day, grief-stricken addicts and family members push themselves over the Watchtower Ridge towards Lone Sentinel, grimly enduring the two-week foot path, in search of the Xian-botanical promised to cure the inherited blight of their family. Culture Anatolian culture is defined by extremes of the spiritual and the rational. In the Anatolian Badlands, science is a foreigner's superstition, and violent centuries have carved mystic tradition into each generation with a savage knife. Anatolians On Samarkandi: "Harken the story of our people - "You will find Samarkand in every oasis." Eyes fixed on the fluttering capes and spotless jewels of the patrician class, another toil-worn serf mutters this phrase, one each Anatolian knows from childhood. And the oasis itself is always unpredictable, shifting every time the hero finds it - once filled with venomous serpents, another holy prophets, another sacred concubines for which love could end in decapitation. Orphic Cults Mystery cult whose adherents worship Demenni-Versev, a duo of godlings each with separate gender variants. While beliefs vary from cult to cult, Demenni in the male aspect serves as the bringer of natural disaster and the divider of peoples; clerics to him have mastered the art of speaking in tongues and are said to be understood in every language of the Badland simultaneously. Female aspect Demenni rules over natural life: forests, fields, and whether or not a family deserves a full harvest. Neuter form Demenni is similar to the Kerazzan 'Spark.' Versev is the child of Demmeni in every aspect. Male aspect Versev is the conquering son, in tales he inherits the diseases of his father (different sire in every story) and champions virtue in the face of adversity, despite famine, gangrene, or an assassin's poison. Female Versev awaits the Searchers in heaven, and guides through the trials of the Afterlife Device. Neuter Versev is the Searcher themself, and may also be found in Heaven. A lone phylactery awaits in the depths of Bones Echo Cavern. Orphics whose afterlife devices are attuned to this phylactery may never be resurrected, but they may visit it repeatedly until the Final Expedition into the Worlds Below. Badlands Nomads 1''' '''Saltblister: '''Typically young bastards, Saltblisters are Badlands nomads who haven't proven themselves to a wartribe, gone mystic, or uncovered any truly spectacular devices. As one yourself, you scrape a living from the selfish earth by picking strange baubles from Times Before out of the hulking wreckage scattered about the defiled land. So far, everything you've found is defective. And yet, you've seen the crafty and wise who seem to stumble upon Talismans everyday - possessed rifles, ghost-tile necklaces, spectrally-infested urns - and bring them to shaman who appraise them and pay them like future kings. What is it they have that you don't? Prerequisite: Badlands Nomad Equipment: Knife, basic survival gear and the general necessities for a week on the road, included in saddlebags, a backpack. Necessities for two weeks on the road. 80 yeni. Personal talisman. '''2A Mullah Shaman: versed in many incantations, and adorned with ritualistic devices, each believed to harbor a slumbering ghost, whose occasional bursts of hunger may be prompted and released upon hapless victims, or satisfied by various meals. Some know activation codes in Xian for ancient and hidden facilities. Here, enclaves of warlocks make their homes, away from the prying eyes of the uninitiated. Prerequisites: craft three personal talismans, status 2 Equipment: sacred manuscript. 3A Warlock: now a religious figure, ancestor spirits flock to the shaman, who asserts command over them using their extensive knowledge of usage of Xian language (if not the underlying meaning itself). They are outfitted with an exotic NI rig called the Shaman model. Each one is designed to allow the manipulation of one program at a time, which may be upgraded throughout time utilizing various software upgrades. These upgrades are equally available to modern technicians or mullah enclaves, while only the latter know how to properly use them. Prerequisites: Equipment: shaman model NI rig 2B Peshmerga, 3B Chieftain, 4B Khagan (or they join a war-tribe seeking vengeance for some poverty inspired wrong or another, as many inspired by just causes as greed.) 2C Oracle 3C Exorcist